


Why had she come home?

by an_amalgamation_of_things



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Canon Divergence, When Sab comes back from France in Eagle Strike, angsty and sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:42:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29978925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/an_amalgamation_of_things/pseuds/an_amalgamation_of_things
Summary: When Sabina comes back from France during Eagle Strike, she decides she can’t stay in her home alone so goes to stay with someone else
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Why had she come home?

The taxi pulled up outside of the Pleasure’s home in Wimbledon. Sabina paid the taxi driver and got out, getting her bag out of the boot before the man drove off. It was the middle of August and the warmth in the air was diminished by the chills that ran through her at the sight of the house. She didn’t want to go in, but knew that she had to. 

She was doubly glad of the fake Dior sunglasses that she was wearing; the sun shone down as Sab opened the garden gate and walked up the path to the front door. She had been wearing them to hide how puffy and bloodshot her eyes were. She knew she looked awful, having barely slept in the last 48 hours, and hadn’t wanted to be asked any questions about it. 

She saw their front garden as if through new eyes as she slowly walked down the path. It was the middle of August and the garden was bursting with life. The flowers were blooming and the bees were buzzing as they moved from plant to plant. There were butterflies too, and ordinarily Sabina would have loved to see nature thriving so close to home. Today though, the life flourishing here felt like a punch in her stomach as her father clung to life so many hundreds of miles away. She took a deep steadying breath to stop herself from breaking down, and caught a scent of the lavender. For the moment, it helped. 

She hadn’t taken her keys to France with her, and in the confusion and chaos of her last day in France, neither she nor her mother had thought about house keys for when she arrived back home. Thankfully, they had a key safe tucked behind a bush that wrapped around the side of the house. Her hands trembled as she entered the four digit code that opened the safe to give her a spare key. The cold metal now clasped in her hand, she closed the safe and moved back to the front door. Her hands were shaking so much that it took three attempts before the key entered the narrow slot and she was able to turn it, opening the door. Moving quickly now, she stepped into the large hallway, closed the door and entered the code to turn off the security alarm so that it wouldn’t be set off. 

The silence hit her like she had walked into a brick wall. The house was never this quiet. Her mum always had the radio on as she did housework or cooked dinner or worked on her books or articles for magazines. Her dad could often be heard on the phone while he worked, or typing loudly as he wrote. When he cooked, he would sing along to the music played on the radio. They liked to watch tv quizzes as a family, shouting out the answers that they knew. There was always something going on, even though they were a family of three and the silence made her feel worse. 

She slowly walked through the house, having dumped her bag at the bottom of the stairs to take up with her when she went up. Running her fingers along different surfaces - the kitchen worktop, the dining room table, the mantelpiece in the living room - she made her way around the whole ground floor, except her father’s office. She could not go in there, not now. There would be too many reminders of what she could still lose. 

Sabina was climbing their gently spiralling staircase when she found that her legs and feet would no longer obey her. She just stopped. And then she found that she had collapsed to the floor, her legs no longer able to support her, and the tears were streaming down her face. This was the first time in two days that she had been fully free to feel her emotions and they hit her like a truck. 

Her mum and dad were still in France. Her dad was in hospital, hanging onto life, after being caught up in a gas explosion in their rented holiday house. He was in hospital in Montpellier and her mother was with him. Why had she come home? Shouldn’t she still be in France with her parents? At least she wouldn’t have been alone if she had stayed. 

Sabina realised that she was still lying on the stairs and slowly got up, picking her bag back up and made her way up to her bedroom. In less than five seconds, she knew that she would not be able to stay here tonight. She needed to be with someone. Anyone. But who? That she didn’t know. 

Without knowing where she was going to go, she began to swap the dirty clothes in her bag and replace them with clean ones. She already had plenty of toiletries and now had enough clothes to last for a few days so would have enough to stay with someone for a while. Taking a last look around her room, she saw Monty on her bed. Monty was a teddy bear that she had had for as long as she could remember and she used to sleep with him every night. Recently though, she hadn’t been, feeling that as a fifteen year old she shouldn’t need to sleep with a teddy every night. That was why he hadn’t gone with her to France. But right now she didn’t care what anyone thought. She needed comfort and would definitely be sleeping with Monty for the foreseeable future. 

She placed him gently in her bag, closed it and slung the strap over her shoulder before making her way back down the stairs. She re-set the alarm before she left the house and locked the door, putting the key back in the key safe. She still didn’t know where she was going to go, but put her sunglasses back on and began walking, needing to be active rather than standing still. 

She walked without paying any attention to where her feet were taking her, going through parks and along streets that she knew but couldn’t take in. She didn’t know how long she walked for, only that it had been quite a long time; it was only as she crossed Battersea bridge and walked through Ropers Gardens that she began to become aware of her surroundings and knew how far she had walked where she had come. 

She had come to Alex’s house in Chelsea. And suddenly she knew that she couldn’t have gone anywhere else. Alex had been staying with them in France, and knew what had happened to her dad. She wouldn’t need to explain anything, and right now she needed that. She didn’t think she would have been able to explain what had happened to anyone and was glad that she wouldn’t have to. 

A pit grew in her stomach as she got closer and closer to his house. What if he wasn’t there? What if he didn’t want to see her? She pushed the thoughts down as she made her way up the path to the front door. She rang the doorbell, but then her fears and doubts came rushing back. She began to turn to leave and go somewhere else but the door opened before she could take a step. Alex was standing in front of her, but before she could properly take anything in, she found that she had flung herself at him and was crying again. 

He said nothing, but held her as she cried in the doorway, and she was glad of that. Eventually, the flood of tears turned into a trickle, and finally stopped. It was only as the sobbing stopped and her breathing steadied that Alex gently changed position to support her into the house. 

He led her into the living room, and over to one of the sofas. She sat down almost mechanically and let him take her bag off her shoulder. He left, and soon came back with a selection of food and drinks, but just left them for her if she wanted them. He hadn’t said anything, and Sab was glad of that. He seemed to understand that she couldn’t say anything herself, but also didn’t want to be talked at. She just needed to sit, and Alex was giving her the space she needed to do that. 

He sat down on the sofa next to her, but she didn’t really notice until she had slowly curled up in his lap. He still didn’t say anything, but let her lay on him, and stroked her hair. For the first time in 48 hours, Sabina actually felt tired. She was in a safe place, and her mind was finally allowing her to sleep. As she drifted off, she knew that she was safe and loved and maybe that was all she needed right now to begin to heal.


End file.
